As disclosed in Patent Document 1, for example, a sputtering system used to deposit a specified thin film on a substrate in manufacturing a TFT array substrate for a liquid crystal display device includes a palletizer built thereinto to allow a substrate placed on a substantially horizontally positioned pallet to be held by the pallet. In such a sputtering system, a technique is known for transferring the pallet to a reaction chamber with the pallet raised up to a substantially vertical position and then depositing a film on the substrate in the chamber.
In the above case, as shown in FIG. 12 that is a cross-sectional view, each pallet 100 is provided with a plurality of clamps 110 serving as engagement elements. The clamps 110 engage a peripheral region of a substrate 200 loaded at the specified position on the pallet 100, thereby holding the substrate 200 on the pallet 100.
Specifically, each clamp 110 pivots between an open position, as shown in FIG. 13(a) that is a partly enlarged cross-sectional view, in which it retracts outward (rightward in the figure) from the peripheral region of the substrate 200 and a closed position, as shown in FIG. 13(b), in which it engages a part of the peripheral region of the substrate 200 associated with the clamp 110.    Patent Document 1: Published Japanese Patent Application No. 2002-121663 (Pages 3 and 4 and FIG. 2)